The Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) is a partnership among 18 premier long-term research sites across the United States. The LTAR network will provide data that can be used in the development of innovative management systems that increase the resilience of agricultural ecosystems in the face of rapid environmental and socioeconomic change, and can help assess the environmental and societal impacts of different agricultural practices and land uses within a particular landscape. Information from LTAR also can contribute to the development of agricultural production systems that maximize energy conservation and reduce greenhouse gases, while investigating various forms of incentives to encourage on-farm adoption and mitigation, and optimize biodiversity to conserve and protect natural resources while enhancing agricultural profitability. The LTAR network will interact and collaborate with other national ecological research networks, such as the National Science Foundation's already operational Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network with 26 sites nationwide, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) now being developed by the National Science Foundation and NEON, Inc, and the USDA Forest Service network of Experimental Forests and Ranges.
Click here to learn more about the Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research network.